Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Beatitudes for the New Year

They may not qualify as resolutions, but the Beatitudes invite us to radical living in the New Year

Thinking about New Year's resolutions, I somehow leapt to
the Beatitudes, that list of eight striking "blessings" or
"attitudes" (or whatever they are) that Jesus shares (Matthew
5:1-12).I am mulling over whether or
not the Beatitudes qualify as resolutions. I don't think they do, per se,
but the New Year certainly offers an opportunity to consider embracing their
challenges as an invitation to radical living today.

Here are the Beatitudes:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of
God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

A few reflections as I think about the Beatitudes in light
of New Year's resolutions:

1. They go to the heart of what Jesus said and lived.

2. A Beatitude is likely to be considered a
"blessing" only when we have lived through the tough circumstances to
which it is a gracious response. When we respond in Beatitude responses,
we will know we have embraced them.

3. The Beatitudes are radical. They go to the heart of
our deepest passions and life circumstances. They point to gut-wrenching
realities of life: poverty and emptiness, loss and grieving, powerlessness and
social contempt, spiritual hunger and yearning for right to prevail, seeing
needy persons being treated unjustly and neglected, bitter division and
violence, religious persecution, insults, gossip, and false accusations.
It seems to me that only heaven-borne grace can conceive of and make possible
the radical outlook and actions described in the Beatitudes.

4. It’s one thing to learn the Beatitudes, to have memorized
them and to be able to quote them. This is often as far as it goes in
Christian catechism or Sunday School. But, like the Ten Commandments or
the Lord’s Prayer, familiarity does not mean we understand them or joyfully
cultivate them as a heart and life orientation beyond a merely formal and legal
application. Compliant and eager to be an ideal Christian as I was as a
child, I remember inwardly revolting at most of the Beatitudes. It was
easier to just recite them and keep them as stained glass phrases. As I
have continued to revisit them, my understanding and appreciation has
increased, but they are no less challenging five decades later.

5. The Beatitudes run counter to American machismo and
status quo. They unsettle presumptions of consumer Christianity. On
the surface, the Beatitudes seem to be a set-up for certain failure in a society
that apparently rewards rugged individualism, conformity to sameness, upward
mobility, the appearance of mental or physical toughness, and a thoroughly
materialistic and self-indulging orientation to value and action. Dig
deeper in the Beatitudes and it gets increasingly difficult to straddle
kingdoms. What emerges is that Jesus actually declares people blessed
whom Western civilization has over the millennia come to despise or
disparage. The rest of Jesus’ ministry is, in one way or another,
verification that his is an upside down kingdom, an invitation to downward
mobility, and an lifting up of all who sorrow, who are relegated to the
margins.

6. Above all, the Beatitudes call for what Brennan Manning
calls “ruthless trust.” Because the blessedness or results described in the Beatitudes
seem so far-fetched or distant, they call for ruthless trust in the invitation,
worldview, Kingdom order, and certain future Jesus describes. As Manning
puts it: “Faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise means that his
voice, echoing and alive in the Gospels, has supreme and sovereign authority
over our lives.” Does it get any more radical than that?

It seems appropriate to consider the Beatitudes on the first
day of the New Year. While we wish each other a Happy New Year, we
might do better by offering each other a prayer for Beatitude grace. May we receive the ruthless trust to see them come to fruition in our
hearts, lives, and world.

2 comments:

There are many books written specifically on the Beatitudes - and then, of course, any commentary on Matthew has to deal with them, and, any book about Jesus should deal with them and the Sermon on the Mount.

I wonder if you have a "favorite" reflection in any book that has most helped you discern the words/ideas of the Beatitudes that you might share! I'd love to know!

I've circled back around to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount more than any other section of the Bible. In doing this, I've found some bad, good, and better reflections. I've been most helped by E. Stanley Jones' "Christ of the Mount." It's his reflection on the Sermon on the Mount. I "discovered" E. Stanley Jones when I was 18 years old (my Pastor R. B. Acheseon gave me a copy of Jones' autobiography "A Song of Ascents"). I've found the Methodist missionary to India and contemporary of Gandhi quite incredible. He is, perhaps, the quintessential articulator Wesleyan-holiness theology in a fully pluralistic world. Certainly, he expresses and embodies the integration of W-h theology and peace activism. Worth fuller exploration.

John Franklin Hay

John Franklin Hay, M.Div., D.Min., Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Executive Director - Near East Area Renewal (NEAR) // Adjunct Faculty - Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (IUPUI) // Pastor, East Tenth United Methodist Church // community and cycling advocate

Twitter @indybikehiker

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